


Hawking

by ariel2me



Series: March to Winterfell [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-16
Updated: 2013-07-16
Packaged: 2017-12-20 09:14:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/885547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariel2me/pseuds/ariel2me
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stannis, Justin Massey, Asha, and a story about hawking.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hawking

“Summer, that was her name,” Justin Massey announced with a broad smile to Asha. “A goshawk, my lady. One of the best in the kingdom, if I may say so myself.”

Asha Greyjoy raised her eyebrows. “Summer? How lovely,” she said, but Stannis could hear the mockery underneath. How very like these soft and weak southern lords and knights, she must be thinking, to name a hawk Summer. “Was she good for hawking in winter too, or would she only do it when it’s summer?” Asha was asking Justin.

Justin laughed so hard, spittle and bits of food dribbled down his chin. _You fool_ , Stannis scoffed silently, _she’s making fun of you_. Justin’s attempt to woo their prisoner was becoming more and more pathetic and transparent by the day.

“She was not named after the season,” Justin said, when he had finally stopped laughing.

“No? Let me guess, she was named after a woman,” Asha said, with a sardonic smile on her face. “The first woman you bedded, perhaps?”

Justin’s face turned red, redder than the fire burning day and night in their encampment. “It is not kind to tease me, my lady,” he said, but his tone was playful rather than cross. “She was named after a dear relative,” he continued solemnly.

_A relative?_ Stannis found it completely unbelievable. Asha’s guess was probably closer to the mark. Why else would Justin have blushed? Certainly not because of the reference to a woman he bedded. Justin Massey had probably bedded as many women as Robert had, Stannis expected. Serving as Robert’s squire seemed to have that unfortunate effect on many men.

“Forgive me, ser,” Asha said, sounding almost contrite. _Almost_.

Justin waved off the apology with a smile, and continued extolling the virtues of his goshawk. “Summer would soar and soar, higher than the treetops.”

Proudwing never soared, not once. She would flutter from room to room, following Stannis everywhere he went inside the castle. A constant companion who incredibly never seemed to tire of his company.

“And she never missed her strike. Never,” Justin continued with great emphasis.

Just like Thunderclap, Robert’s pride and joy, who had never missed her strike either. Weakwing, Robert had called Stannis’ bird. Stannis had bristled at that insulting and mocking name. And yet …

_Her right wing was injured, when I found her._ It took a long time for it to heal. Stannis had hounded Maester Cressen daily, asking if there was nothing else to be done. “ _You must have patience_ ,” Cressen had said. _“If you wish to keep her, you must nurse her patiently and carefully.”_

Justin Massey was still going on and on at great length about the exploits of his goshawk. Stannis’ patience was wearing thin. “Some of us would like to eat in peace rather than being hounded with your stories, Massey,” Stannis snapped, even though he himself had eaten not a bite of the onion soup cooling in front on him.

The smile never left Justin’s face. “Forgive me, Your Grace. I thought it is a story that might cheer Lady Asha, during our long and cold march.”

“A prisoner does not need cheering up,” Stannis barked.

“And where is Summer now, Ser Justin?” Asha asked, staring defiantly at Stannis. He cursed her and Justin Massey both.

Justin’s face suddenly took on a very different countenance, something Stannis had rarely seen on the face of the knight he had scornfully called The Smiler. Justin was looking glum and very gloomy. “She just disappeared one day. She soared above the treetops, high up to the sky … and never came back. I couldn’t understand it. I loved her, and I treated her well. I still don’t know why she didn’t come home.”

Asha was saying some words of commiserations and sympathies to Justin, but Stannis barely heard them. He was back at Storm’s End on the day Proudwing flew away, never to return. Unlike Justin Massey, however, Stannis knew exactly why his goshawk never came home.

 


End file.
